( sunday )
( friday )
A monochrome fade
M O R E L I G H T !
this story about a vampire has a bad ending
everyone is left unhappy at the end
Kizumonogatari
Tekketsu-hen
Based off of Kizumonogatari by Nisio Isin
March 25th
Umm...
I-I didn't see anything...
Naoetsu Road
Ehehe...
You know...
No matter how you look, a skirt doesn't provide much security when you're trying to keep something hidden, does it?
Maybe I really do need to wear shorts to act as a firewall, huh?
W-Who knows...
Well, I’ll be leaving now.
Hey, wait a sec!
I’ve finally caught up with you.
You walk pretty fast,
Araragi-kun.
Araragi-kun
Huh?
Why do you know my name?
Eh? Well, of course I would.
We go to the same school.
"Small village" radical with the character "ka", as in "kanou"...
Kanou
Possibility
Kanou
Possibility
"yoi" as in "yoiko", times two,
ra
Good Kid
ra ra
Good Kid
ra ra
and then "moku" as in "juumoku" makes "Araragi".
gi
Your given name is the character for "calendar", pronounced "Koyomi", right?
Koyomi
So it's Araragi, Koyomi-kun.
Koyomi Araragi
And you're Hanekawa.
Hanekawa, Tsubasa.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Wow!
Amazing! You know the name of someone like me!
On the first semester finals of our second year,
in all subjects, physical education and visual arts included,
you got wrong only one question in the forms.
That's Hanekawa, Tsubasa.
Huh? Hey, cut it out.
Why do you know that much?
Could it be that, Araragi-kun...
you are a stalker of mine?
But maybe even someone with a victim complex would think that's over the line.
No, not really.
I heard it from my alien friend.
Huh?
Araragi-kun, you have a friend?
Ask about the alien part first!
Well, it's just...
You're always on your own, and I had the impression you led a life of solitude.
Well, like you said, I don't really have any friends.
If a friendless guy like me knows who you are, that means you're just that famous.
Stop that already.
I don't really like those kinds of jokes.
Hey, Araragi-kun.
Do you believe in vampires?
What's up with vampires?
There's been a rumor going around lately.
Like there's a vampire in the city,
so you shouldn't go out alone at night.
That's a bit vague, sounds like a baseless rumor.
They say it’s a blonde-haired, beautiful woman, a vampire whose cold eyes could chill your spine.
But you can’t tell if she’s a vampire just off that, can you?
What if she’s just an ordinary person who stands out because of the blonde hair?
But... I heard that her blonde hair illuminated by street lights is almost dazzling
and she doesn't cast shadow.
However, if it happens at night...
Even if she was standing under a streetlight and all, they still could have just been imagining it.
Yes, even I think it's a silly rumor, too.
But, if there are vampires, I’d like to meet them.
I wished something superior to humans like that really existed.
Superior to humans... You mean like God?
It doesn’t have to be a god, though.
Otherwise, It would all just be too unfulfilling if they didn't exist, right?
Oh, my bad, my bad.
Araragi-kun, unexpectedly, you’re easy to talk with.
I got carried away, I feel like I told you something that makes no sense.
It's strange that you don't have friends when you're so easy to talk to.
Why don’t you make any?
To make friends... would lower my intensity as a human.
Eh?
I’m sorry, I don’t quite get what you mean.
Well, you see,
it’s kinda like this...
You see, if I had friends, I’d have to worry about them, right?
If my friends get hurt, even I would,
and if they were sad, then I too would be sad.
Putting it that way, these weak points build up.
And I'd grow even weaker as a person.
But, if your friends were to have fun, you'd have fun, and if they were happy, you'd be happy too.
Wouldn't the good points build up as well?
No, if my friends were having fun, I'd feel jealous, and if they were happy, I'd feel envious.
What a petty person you are.
Leave me alone.
Naoetsu Road
I'm...
Hmm?
I'm going to head to the library now.
Do you want come with me?
Why?
What are you gonna do at the library?
I'm going to study, of course.
"Of course", you say...
Sorry, but even without homework to do on break, I'm not praiseworthy enough to study on my own.
But...
Naoetsu Road
You have exams next year, right?
Exams? What's that?
I doubt I'll even graduate.
I won't make it in time no matter what.
Araragi-kun.
Do you have a cellphone?
Of course I have at least a cellphone.
Can I borrow it?
Thanks, you can have it back.
Naoetsu Road
I put my email and number in there.
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Too bad!
You made a friend.
What's with her...?
Naoetsu Road
Thinking back
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Thou...
I shall allow thee to save me.
Dost thou not hear me?
I told thee that I have given thee permission to save me.
Hey,
Are you alright?
I-I'll get an ambulance righ-
An ambulance?
I have no need of such a thing.
Instead...
Give me thy blood.
Do you believe in vampires?
They say it’s a blonde-haired, beautiful woman, a vampire whose cold eyes could chill your spine.
My name is Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade.
The Iron-blooded, Hot-blooded andCold-blooded vampire.
I shall consume thy blood and incorporate it into my body.
So, give me thy blood.
Isn't a vampire...
supposed to be immortal?
I've lost too much blood.
I can no longer regenerate, nor can I transform.
If I am left like this, I will die.
An insignificant human like thee
should consider it an honor to become my flesh and blood.
B-Blood?
Couldn't you do a transfusion?
Ho-How much do you need?
For the time being, with thy share I can endure this emergency...
I see, my share...
What is the matter?
Blood...
Give me thy blood. Quickly...
Do it now!
Do it now, thou dolt!
It's alright, I can still get out of this.
What greater honor can there be!?
I should be able to run away!
I just need to run away .
it's simple ,
I just need to ignore this .
Hey!
Say it isn't so...
Wilst thou not save me?
NO WAY!
No way! No way! No way!!
I don't wanna die!
Please, help me!
I don't wanna!
I'm sorry...
I'll die if I do it...
And besides, she's a monster.
A vampire...
There's no reason for me to save her...
Right?
I know that already!
...know that already... already....
Don't give up, stupid!
Y-You wouldn't mind?
Of course I mind, you bastard.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
Why...
How did things end up like this...
Things will definitely be better in my next life. I'll be reborn as someone who isn't selfish.
I'll be reborn as someone like that.
That's why...
I'll help you... drink my blood.
Have it all. Don't leave a drop.
Wring me dry!
Thank you...
Was it a dream?
SURPRISE
Hey!
Wake up.
Five more minutes...
5 minutes
Come on, wake up!
I'll wake up when I feel like it...
When I feel like it
How long are you going to sleep?
4.6 billion years
Give me about 4.6 billion years...
Another Earth will arise!
March 28th
Two days have passed since then?
Fool!
Seriously...
What sort of idiot would just walk out into the sun like that?
An ordinary vampire would have been vaporized instantly.
Never go outside ever again while the sun is out.
With thy imperfect regeneration, thou wouldst burn, and regenerate, and burn, and regenerate in an endless loop.
But, that is only if an immortal vampire can be considered "alive" in the first place.
Vam... pire?
Then... that means you're...
Thinking back
Yup.
Indeed. I am Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade.
You may call me Heart-Under-Blade.
I’ve only created two subordinates in four hundred years...
But... Looking at your regeneration powers,
you turned out pretty good!
S-Subordinate?
Subordinate
Aye! That is thee!
Come to think of it,
I still haven't heard thy name.
But it matters not.
Whatever name thou hadst previously is of no importance to thee now.
Anyways, servant.
Welcome to the world of the night.
Where... are we?
Something called a "cram school", I believe.
It seems to have closed a few years ago, and now it is but an abandoned ruin.
As thou seest, it is a convenient hiding place, right?
Then, Kiss-shot, here's the next question...
Halt! Did I not tell thee to call me Heart-under-blade!?
That's too long.
Kiss-shot is shorter...
Or can I not call you that?
Well, no...
Well, that's true. Thou mayst call me that, if that is what thou wishest.
I have no reason to refuse.
And so, what is thy next question?
Well...
I turned... into a vampire, right?
Of course.
I do not believe I need explain any further at this point.
Thou hast become my subordinate and my servant. Be honored.
Servant...
Then...
Why do you have such a child-like body?
When I met you, you were more... adult-like...
Well sorry I look like a child!
No, I didn't mean it like that.
Adult-like
Afterwards ...
Her arms and legs had been severed
Thy blood, I sucked it all.
But it wasn't enough...
That is why I've taken the appropriate form.
'Tis better than dying.
With that said, while I kept the minimal degree of immortality, the majority of vampire powers became limited.
This is most inconvenient.
Thinking back
As thou canst see, my limbs are regenerated as well, if only in appearance.
They are empty on the inside, though.
But, this will do for now.
However, the master-servant relationship needs to be clear, servant!
Reduced to this state I may be, but I am still a 500-year-old vampire.
Under normal circumstances, a newborn vampire such as thee wouldst ne'er be allowed to speak to me as equals.
O-Okay...
What a ambiguous answer...
Do you really understand?
Well, yeah, I understand.
Then, prove thy obedience by patting my head.
That will do.
Why... did you turn me into a vampire?
When you sucked my blood, I was prepared to die.
It's nothing special.
After your blood is sucked by a vampire, you in turn, become a vampire.
That's all there is to it.
I see...
Well, to me, that is a convenient turn of events,
for there is something you must do for me.
I was unable to regenerate any further with thy blood.
But I am far from my full power.
As such, thou must act on my behalf hereafter.
What do I have to do?
Will I...
be able to become human again?
I expected as much...
I figured thou wouldst ask me that.
Then, what can I do? I—
You can...
I guarantee it,
upon my good name.
Kisshot then told me the names of the three who took her limbs
Those three are specialists in vampire extermination.
And they exterminated you?
Don't speak such idiotic things. I haven't been exterminated yet.
But, having my limbs stolen hurts.
And I've nearly none of my regenerative power left.
So in my condition, I cannot fight.
That's why...
thou wilt simply have to engage the three of them,
and retrieve my limbs.
"Simply"? If only it were that easy...
In order to revert you to a human, I must return to my full power.
Basically, back to my complete form.
For that, my limbs are needed.
But I'm no good with things like fighting.
Worst case, what if I get exterminated instead?
Fool, that was true of thee only when thou wert still human.
Thou art now my subordinate.
With my strength now at a minimum, even thou couldst kill me, one of the most powerful vampires.
So basically, even though you're a vampire, you're a wimp?
I am not!
Well, even if the presently weakened you isn’t as strong as me...
You're stronger than me at full power and yet those three men were able to take away limbs from the you in complete form?
In that case...
I was simply caught off-guard because the three of them attacked me together.
I underestimated them.
In other words,
they are no match for thee as long as thou fightest them alone.
Bluntly put, this is a trifling task.
W-What should I do...
Time's up
Come on! Why don't we discuss this!?
Time's up
I'm human, you know!
A-Are you guys, gonna kill a human?!
Kill a
human
Change the outcome
You guys are really energetic,
did something good happen?
Huh?
Thank you... you saved me.
No need to thank me. I saw you were alone, so I helped,
Araragi-kun.
Don't look at me like that...
No need to be so alert around me.
You are really energetic,
did something good happen?
Well, in any case, lets go home, Araragi-kun.
Go home?
To that cram school ruin.
Huh?
Wait a minute! H-How do you know about that?!
Huh? Of course I know.
I'm the one who told the girl about it, after all.
Well, you gotta do the right thing when you're able.
That child, Heart-Under-Blade, was dragging your body looking like she was in a rough spot.
So I told her about the place.
What...
What are you?
I'm just an old man who passed by, that's all.
Just relax,
I don't specialize in vampire extermination or anything.
My specialty is much broader.
People have me do a wide variety of things.
Well, lets leave the introductions for later.
You're back!
The guy back there... I think I've seen him before...
That's mean...
Is that all you remember about me?
So,
how did it go?
That's troublesome.
Those three... they're still working together?
Anyway...
You said you couldn't defeat those three even at full power.
In that case,
there is no way I can beat those three by myself.
Like I said, just fight them one by one-
They're working together. That's impossible.
You claim we'll be fine as long as we stay put.
but even here, sooner or later they'll fin-
There's no need to worry about that.
While you guys were sleeping I had set up a barrier here.
Barrier? You mean like a force-field?
You can call it that.
You...
What are you trying to do?
Why would you help,
Kissshot and me?
I get that you're not an enemy,
but I can't bring myself to consider you our ally, either.
Don't say mean things like that, jeez.
I keep the balance, you see.
You might say that's my job.
I build bridges from here to there.
Introduce yourself.
You said we'd do it later.
|||||||||
3
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2
Oshino, Meme.
Oshino Meme
A wanderer without a home to speak of.
Well, you can consider me an authority on supernatural beings.
Unlike those three men, I'm not so good at exterminating supernatural beings, though.
"Not great"?
To put it simply...
I just don't like it.
But isn't that your specialty?
As I said, I specialize in maintaining the balance.
I'm a neutral party that conducts negotiatons.
Well, if I had to give it a name, I'd call myself a negotiator.
A middle-man? Building bridges from here to there?
Where is "here"? Where is "there"?
Lines Sound
"Here" is probably humans, and "there" is probably monsters.
In that case right now which
side am I on
Monsters? Nice.
I prefer to call them "oddities".
Apparition
And that girl over there, is known as the oddity killer.
She can drain apparitions of their energy.
Which is a quite rare type of vampire.
Well, that's why, she's very famous.
Listening to the conversion you guys just had...
it seems like this matter is particularly serious.
I didn't think it would get this complicated.
It is not troublesome at all. The job's very simple.
It must seem that way from the perspective of a long-lived vampire.
But for us humans it is very difficult, right, Araragi-kun?
Moreover, I'm interested in you, Heartunderblade.
I'll make sure if your will to give your subordinate, Araragi-kun, his humanity back is real...
In that case, I can be your intermediary.
From this perspective, I can stay on the middle-ground.
Middle-ground?
Between us and those three guys?
Who else?
W-Will you help us?
I'm not helping you. I'm only lending you my strength.
I just can't help but feel it's too imbalanced the way things are right now.
It just seems like bullying.
But of course, this is a job, so it can't be free of charge.
Let's see...
How does two million yen sound to you?
Two million?!
Pay it back whenever you want, no pressure.
There wouldn't be much balance if I didn't ask for at least that much.
But...
Can I hear the specifics of your plan?
You say you're a negotiator but it isn't that easy.
There's no way to persuade those three.
All I can do is bow and ask them nicely.
As sincerely as I can.
And if asking nicely doesn't work, then we'll have to resort to force. But if it does, the game is on.
Game, you say?
First of all, we'll need to split them up.
It shouldn't be a problem if we do it one-on-one.
You said that yourself, didn't you?
Then I’ll just need to find a way to do that.
But how wilt thou going to negotiate with them, Boy?
The details are a trade secret,
but I'll prepare the field.
And then Araragi-kun will handle retrieving your limbs.
If he can get the arms and legs back, Heart-under-blade will be able to recover her powers,
and then, Araragi-kun will be able to become a human again.
Hey, servant!
I cannot provide any human currency.
nor do I understand exactly how heavy a burden this two-million-yen debt is.
Art thou able to shoulder such a debt?
Don't worry. This boy's skills are real.
I can tell that much, even in my weakened state.
I don't have that much money,
but, if I can pay it back whenever I want, no pressure, and I don't need any co-signer or collateral...
I'll bear the debt.
That's a deal, then.
We hope to see you again!
Just kidding.
Based off of Kizumonogatari by Nisio Isin
Only sound
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
Kisshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade
Iron-blooded
and a vampire for a vampire.
Hot-blooded
Yet Cold-blooded
Red frame
Iron
pi
Vam re
Only sound
Dramaturgy
Let's get started, then.
A towering man, standing over 2 meters tall. He held two greatswords with undulating blades, one in each hand. Those are apparently known as flamberges. Muscular, with his bangs pulled back by a distinctive hairband. The vampire-hunting specialist who stole Kiss-shot's right arm. [...] The date is March 31st. The last day of March.
A vampire who kills his own kind
Subordinate of a vampire
Only sound
Episode
Like, totally hilarious!
A man with sanpaku eyes, wearing a white gakuran. In one hand he held a cross slung over his shoulder, with a length about three times his height, and a weight possibly as great as his own body weight, cubed. Apparently, he is a vampire hunter. He hunts vampires for cash. In other words, a hitman. Furthermore, he is a...
Half vampire
Only sound
Guillotinecutter
How unpleasant.
A man with style, who visited hedgehogs everyday.
And easily was the calmest man out there.
A Human.
The apparition who denies being one and is
A Human.
Araragi-kun!
Hanekawa Tsubasa
Don't worry about me!
He's a good guy, but that's not all he is. He's a strong guy.
How the hell can I not worry about you!?
Araragi Koyomi
Five
It was at that moment
If I can't see you ever again, I don't have any reason to be a human again!
Four
that I finally felt like I met Hanekawa for the first time in my life.
Three
Not just passing each other by. We met face to face.
Two
Araragi-kun,
Feel relief
One
give up on being a human.
Summer 2016 National Roadshow
Kizumonogatari
Nekketsu-hen
Summer 2016 National Roadshow
Kizumonogatari
Nekketsu-hen